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Event Name: Society for Music Analysis Autumn Study Day

Event Location: University of Sussex

Event Date(s): November 25, 2006

Deadline for Proposals: May 26, 2006

Event Description and Information:

The performance of a new orchestral work by Richard Barrett recently occasioned more controversy for the composer's "marxist" programme note than for the music itself. Concert programme notes may be traced back to the early 19th century and the development of attentive musical listening. Although some of the earliest concert notes were devised to explain the content of programmatic music (e.g., Berlioz's synopsis for the Symphonie fantastique), the wider acceptance of programme notes was related to the idea of music as an abstract art. Today, modes of musical production and reception are changing so rapidly that it is a timely moment to take stock of the situation and ask how programme notes and articles are responding to, or anticipating, the changing climates of music.

This conference has four main aims:

to ask what programme are notes for: What function do they serve in modern day musical life in the concert hall and theatre, or as disseminated electronically? How responsive are contemporary programme notes and articles to the expectations and needs of modern listeners?

to ask how new technologies (e.g., the CD-ROM or DVD) enable different methods of introducing contextual and analytical material for musical appreciation

to examine the relationship between current theories and practices of academic analysis and the expectations of those who commission, write and read programme notes

to facilitate dialogue and understanding between the work of the academic community and the professional worlds in relation to modern musical scholarship

The conference panels will address four main areas:

Concert and Opera programme notes
Composer programme notes
CD notes
New electronic media

Programme

10.00am Arrival and Registration
10.30 Opening Remarks: Nicholas Till
10.45 Keynote Address: Ian Pace (University of Cardiff). The Marxist Programme Note: the logic of the supplement in the textual accompaniment (Nono, Henze, Huber, Cardew, Wolff, Rzewski and Barrett).

11.30 Coffee

12.00pm Session I: Programme Notes for Contemporary Music Peter Laki (Cleveland Orchestra, USA). �Oh No! Not Birtwistle Again!�
How programme notes can help get the message across.
Gordon Downie (University of the West of England). Cultural Production as
Self-surveillance: making the right impression.
Sam Hayden (University of Sussex). How a Composition "was not helped by a programme note": a composer's view.

1.30 Lunch

2.30 Session II: Programme Notes for Concerts and Recordings Bethany Lowe (University of Newcastle). Opposition, Correlation, and
Collaboration: rhetorical strategies and the web of relationships in the programme notes from recordings of Sibelius�s Fifth Symphony.
Elina Prepula (Jyvaskyla University, Finland). Programme Notes as a Discourse Practice: audience responses to concert programme notes in Finland.
Georgina Boyes (University of Sheffield). Audience Expectations:
programme and album notes and the English Folk Revival.

4.00 Tea

4.15 Round Table: Commissioners, Writers and Audiences
Chair: tbc
Andrew Burn (Head of Education and Ensembles, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra).
Mark Pappenheim (Editor, Proms programme book).
Arnold Whittall (Emeritus Professor of Music, Kings College London).
5.45 Closing Remarks
6.00 Close

Getting there: http://www.sussex.ac.uk/about/howtofindus.html

Cost: Attending the SMA day is free to current, paid-up members of the Society for Music Analysis.
For non-SMA members who wish to attend, the cost will be:
�10 for students
�20 for non-students
which includes SMA membership until the end of 2007. Membership forms will be available on the day, but please send a cheque in advance, made payable to �Society for Music Analysis�, to the address below.

Lunch: Arrangements will be made for lunch to be served to anyone attending the event, should they wish. Alternatively, people attending the event can bring their own food. Lunch will cost �12 (�7 for students), and everyone wishing to have lunch should send a cheque (separate to the registration fee) to Nick Till by Friday 10 November, so that we can give the caterers adequate notice of numbers. Lunch cheques should be made payable to �The University of Sussex�. Please state any special dietary requirements when reserving lunch.

Cheques to the SMA and/or lunch should be sent to:
Nicholas Till, Department of Music, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QN

Proposal Instructions / Guidelines:

Papers should address any of the above questions or areas, and might do so through discussion of historical or current examples, discussion of practices outside the mainstream or western model, or through consideration of the economic or cultural issues raised by the topic in general.

Proposals for papers of 20 minutes duration, in the form of an abstract of 200 words, should be sent to Nicholas Till, Department of Music, Arts B164, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QN, or preferably by email to n.till@sussex.ac.uk

DEADLINE FOR RECEIPT OF PROPOSALS: 26 May 2006

You will be notified of the outcome by 23 June 2006.

Date Listed: 10/20/2006

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